Freelancing: Doing your own thing at your own pace

Freelancing provides you with the freedom that you might look for, not bound to normal office hours and also not having to commute to an office every morning. Most Freelancers work from home or some will put some variety into their working environment and work 2 days out of the week from the local coffee shop. Today technology provides you with the freedom to work almost from everywhere you like, and even while you on holiday.

Freelancers comes in many forms, Software Development, Website Development, Business Plan writing, Translating Service, Freelance Writing the list can go on and on. But be aware with all this freedom comes risk and insecurity. As a freelancer, your next paycheck is never guaranteed. You need to make sure that you have the next project lined up. This plagues many freelancers, no matter how seasoned.

The best way to ensure your freelancing future is to offer a service you know people want. Just because you’d like to do something doesn’t mean that there’s a readymade market for it, and the best way to ensure this is through Marketing.
You need to create a profile as a trust worthy resources that delivers quality work on time and in budget.

Marketing is often a part the Freelancers neglect and as a result many Freelancers go back to a 9-5 job and back into the corporate world that they initially fled from

Building a Portfolio

Building a portfolio does not start over night and as in any business, your freelancing career is only as strong as the sales you make. Finding clients is the number-one challenge for any freelancer. How do you attract clients? You can follow the below steps to get you going
1. Develop a portfolio: this is the quickest way to demonstrate the scope of your skills.
2. Try to get the word out – colleagues, friends, family, neighbors you might find that referrals will make up the bulk of your initial business.
3. Make sure that you join a Freelance portal like – www.99desk.com
4. Create a profile and increase you visibility on such a portal.
5. Make sure that you regularly visit the portal so that you are aware of what you competitors are doing and what their strategy and strong points are, you never know you might want to work with other Freelancers on future projects.